A Year in our New Home

There were other trials and tribulations along the way but I'd like to leave them in the past. Suffice to say that we are coming up to our first anniversary in our new home.

For the first time in our lives, we've bought an apartment. It's on the top floor of a country manor and the living room has a triple aspect plus a high ceiling, so it's full of natural sunlight and the views are fantastic - especially the sunsets!

We like it but there are fifty stairs (no lift) therefore we may need to move again as our legs get older!

The New Home Saga Continues...

You may remember the final couple of paragraphs of our previous post about finding a new home to buy? Well, it's been a frantic few weeks but here's the catch-up!

With ten weeks until the agreed moving date, we hadn't found anywhere to live - then we did - and were set to exchange last Friday... then Monday... then, on Tuesday, we were told by the estate agent that the person at the bottom of the chain had pulled out. At this point, we discovered what an unusual chain it was! Apart from the first time buyer at the bottom of the chain, every other link along the chain was buying a cheaper property than they were selling.

It highlights some flaws in the system: one person can, on a whim, have a change of mind on the designated exchange date which triggers the collapse of the whole chain. In this case, there were varying degrees of consequences.

1. The vendors who lost their buyer at the foot of the chain were moving their family from South London to North Hertfordshire and are due to start new jobs next week, having arranged child care and schools. We understand that, in the interest of expediency and their sanity, they have decided to rent out their London home and use the proceeds to rent more cheaply in Herts.
2. The people they were buying from have re-listed their house with the estate agent. These are the people to whom we have sold (stc) our house and we have been asked to sit tight for a couple of weeks to see how things progress. Being school holidays, though, many potential buyers may still be away for the rest of August.
3. We're cool for a couple of weeks and so are the people at the top of the chain, who we agreed to buy from.

However, all of us have accumulated £hundreds in solicitors fees, searches, surveys, etc. which are not reclaimable. No wonder selling, buying and moving home is high on the list of stressful situations!

So... more to come!

Another Time Lapse ... and adieu to our lovely home.

SELLING & BUYING. We didn't even mean to stay here for almost ten years but it's been difficult to find something affordable that is as good! Here goes with a long story that is still unfinished...

Our home was completed about eight years ago and we still love the house and garden; we also love the nature reserve (walkable) and the old town centre (walkable). "So why move?" I hear you ask. We always promised ourselves that we would return to the open countryside - we only moved into town to be within walking distance of the school for seven years - but we have spent three years looking for a new home.

Finally, we found something. It was another project (although we keep saying 'never again') that we could just about afford to buy and make livable, in a fantastic location where we had often dreamed of living but where property rarely comes up for sale and most houses are way above our price range.

Property #1

We offered the full asking price and were one of three offers put forward: a cash purchase from a developer, £35k less than the asking price, and one other offer, slightly below ours. We needed to be in a position to proceed and were given a week to sell our house - this was a Thursday in early May. It actually took us eight days to receive an offer on our house (these were the first people to view and they offered the next morning); the next couple to view our house also made an offer and, with a completed, short chain, wanted a quick move.

We called the vendor's agent with the good news but were told that the vendors of the property we wanted had accepted an offer from a cash buyer the previous day. Gutted, we decided that as we had finally started the moving process, we should continue...

Property #2

A house we had previously seen for sale three months earlier had dropped in price and was now of interest to us. It was in a nice location and had a lovely garden but the property, whilst livable, needed some work. We were told that the price had been reduced because the owners had now found somewhere to buy and wanted a quick sale.

We offered just under the asking price and had to wait for a response because the owners were away on a cruise. In the meantime, another would-be purchaser viewed the house and made a similar offer so both parties were asked to submit a 'best and final' offer. The owners were still on holiday but, after a few days, we were told that, again, the offers were similar and we were asked if we would be prepared to offer more. Apparently, we both did. The owners were still on holiday but promised to inform us of their decision on their return to the UK..

We are now into June and the owners finally arrive back on Thursday evening. At 5.20pm on Friday, we were advised that the owners are no longer buying the property they wanted and do not wish to rent a property. They asked whether either of the potential purchasers would be willing to have their offer accepted with a delay while they looked around.

No! Enough is enough! We felt that we had been 'played' by the vendors who procrastinated while they enjoyed their relaxing holiday yet we had agreed along our chain to target a moving date of mid-to-late August. Having wasted almost a month awaiting various responses, we currently have only ten weeks to find somewhere to move to. We were told that the other offer has been accepted and we wish the purchasers lots of luck in their dealings with the procrastinators.

Property #3

This will need to be covered in the next blog post as we are in limbo at the moment. We hope to get back to you soon with a happy ending, third time lucky and all that! Meanwhile, some photos of our completed project, our 'Sold (stc)' house, are featured above for you to see.

Update Excuses

Apologies for leaving the story unfinished but we bought a new computer after the last post and all the photographs were trapped on the old one. We hope, one day, to showcase the finished renovation on this blog.

Everything is still as it was (with a 'lived-in' rather than show-home look now) and we still love it. The kitchen and bathrooms haven't dated at all, although some appliances have disappointed and we have had to replace the compact cistern, an imported product no longer supplied by the high street bath store.

Other than those, a couple of the wooden slatted blinds have misbehaved but nothing major so, overall, we are quite pleased. We particularly love the spacious feel of open-plan living areas and large expanses of glass to the three-walled south-facing patio, which is a wonderfully sheltered sun-trap.

So, photographs of the finished project... one day, we hope! 

Update: click for pics!

We went away for Easter ...

Can you blame us???

April 2008:

Del & I had discussed my wash hand basin design idea for the downstairs shower room / cloakroom and, having searched the Internet and failed to find anything remotely like it readily available, we raided the local tile shop for their natural stone leftovers and created the corner "floating font"!

I was thrilled with the result. It is diagonally opposite the corner loo thus providing a pleasant view when seated.

The Sun Shone in February

Little jobs got done: the utility room was built, which provided a mini-kitchen so that the actual kitchen could be gutted and the downstairs loo was moved in order to accommodate this - accordingly, the upstairs facilities were working.

The oppressive ply wall came down and our living area moved south into the new extension. Larger, lighter and brighter: oh joy! This enabled the ceiling and walls in the original lounge area to be tampered with (pulling down the ceiling before it fell of its own volition, moving the doorway from the lounge into the kitchen, closing off the doorway from the kitchen to the hall).
 

The outside walls were rendered. We "celebrated" 6 months on the job. During March, the downstairs shower room/loo was tiled and fitted (except for the whb which was completed in April, more about that later) and the kitchen was plastered and prepared ready for the units and appliances.

2008: it gets worse before it gets better

January 2008. Having built the outer shell, it was time to knock down the original load-bearing back wall of the house. At this stage we are wondering why we decided to do this ...


First, the lounge was reduced from 12 x 14  to 12 x 10 by the erection of a plywood wall to keep some warmth in and some dirt out, meaning that the family living room was cramped with 3 sofas, a TV and no windows. The photograph shows the ply wall, also artily reflected in the mirror. (Can you see the green-brown carpet? Leafy-swirly survivor from the '70s!) Oh, and those plants didn't survive.

Another photograph shows the other side of the ply wall with the supports that were erected to keep the roof up while a very long double steel beam was inserted between the two pillars to support the weight above the "open plan living" gap. The old lounge and new extension will form an L-shaped living/dining room, open to the new kitchen (which we stupidly ordered in spring 2007 and they've been trying to deliver since before Xmas).

The third photograph shows the trendy cheesecloth curtain, swept aside to reveal the remains of the kitchen! There was a cooker but no sink - the only mains water was from the outside tap!

We ate out quite a lot while the place was in such a mess. God only knows how the TV, the old PC and the CD player didn't grind to a spluttering halt with all the dust.

The bifolding-sliding doors and tilt-n-turn windows were in (there's a new web site, www.sunseekerdoors.co.uk/) and the month ended with the plasterers doing their thing.